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Bednar Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

If there were/had been

Hello everyone,
In a test, I came accross this question:


14. Belville's serious drawback was its lack of a decent airport. If there ________ one within a 100 mile range, the city's beauty could easily have tipped the scales in its favor.


A/ would be B/ were C/ had been D/ has been

In my opinion, both B and C are correct. What do you guys think?
  

Top answer

You wrote it was a question from a test ... so I guess only C works (3 rd conditional). If there had been ...

— Tanit

  • You wrote it was a question from a test ...
  • so I guess only C works (3 rd conditional).
  • If there had been ...
  • the beauty could have tipped ...
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4 Answers
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You wrote it was a question from a test ... so I guess only C works (3rd conditional).

If there had been ... the beauty could have tipped ...
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I think it would be more grammatically correct to use "had been" istead of just "were" here because the sentence tells us about what could have happend in the past, but didn't happen.
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I wouldn't use were. The first sentence has was, a past tense. could have tipped also indicates the past. if there were is a hypothetical present, so it doesn't fit with the past tenses.

(Note that in hypothetical clauses, generally introduced by if, what is usually a past tense is treated as a hypothetical present, and what
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According to me, B is the correct one, though the following statement pointing to C.But still B is sounding more accurate.

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